On board Ceol Mor, we eat homecooked meals fully 95% of the time. I cook 99.997% of those meals and I have pretty strong opinions on what equipment works, what doesn’t work and what are some myths about boat kitchen equipment.
I come from a professional cooking career, so I’ve had the benefit of cooking in a lot of kitchens with a lot of tools for comparasion. There is no getting around the fact that while I cook the same as I do on land for the most part, (mostly adjusting recipes to what is available as opposed to what is ideal) the equipment and gear that works is sometimes different and sometimes non-intuitive. When you are choosing what equipment and gear to put in your tiny kitchen onboard a boat or on a skoolie or RV, you don’t want to waste precious space on stuff that doesn’t work or is unnecessary and boy is that easy to do!
Pictured below are my workhorse kit. I use these almost every single day and after months out cruising, mostly at anchor or open ocean sailing and in some big, big seas these are what has worked and held up well.
1. Prestige 5L Pressure Cooker- Absolutely the handiest piece of kit after my tea kettle. I’ve used Instapots a plenty at my last corporate job, so I understand the advantages and flexibility a huge Instapot offers, but at 1/2 the price and 1/2 the size you can’t beat these old school pressure cookers. I use mine to preecook beef, lamb, chicken and pork. I use it for stews, boiling eggs, potatoes, beans you name it. I am going to start attempting some bakes in mine soon! I use it so often, one of the projects Mark is undertaking on the boat is the addition of a dedicated shelf for it to make it easier to access. I just wish I had space for yet another one.
2. MYTH BUST- Borosilicate glass food storage- There is a myth that you can’t have glass on a boat. It’s just that, a myth. These are fantastic. I currently have 6 approx 8 x 5 with locking plastic lids. I store them when we are underway in a cabinet lined with shelf liner so that the glass is resting on plastic while double stacked. The rest of the shelf is utilized to ensure that these are well secured while underway. The rectangular shape fits well in my Engel refrigerator, pop off the lid and it can go right in the oven or microwave, the locking lids are secure and prevent any leaks. I can bake cakes and breads in them. Cook roasts in them, casseroles, and so much more. These are gold. This is how I can prep 4 to 5 meals for passages for 2 or 3 people in a tiny Engel and still have room for the essentials. Everything on our boat needs to have dual purpose and these certainly do! Clean up is easy, the square shape fits well in the Engel and they just make life simple.
3. Collapsible Strainer- Sometimes I hate having a dual galley sink, sometimes I love it. Like when I can find a collasible strainer that hooks on to the center divide of the sink therby giving me an extra hand because it seems whenever I use it we are in big seas and I need a hand for whatever needs to be strained and a hand to hang on as the galley rocks and rolls.
Phew.
Anyway, super handy to have although can be a bit awkward to store due to the sink attachment shape.
4. Good Quality 6 inch Chef’s Knife- I currently have a terrible quality 6 inch knife and have been desperately looking for an upgrade. While cooking, I’ve become used to 11 to 12 inch knives. Stabithas. Professional cooks love Stabithas. It turns out those counter fiddles that help keep things from sliding across the cabin are the same things that make a large knife incredibly awkward to use. We have some great French knives aboard, large cheffy Stabitha types but they are all anything but dainty. I picked up a cheapie 6 inch knife as that was all that was available but I am definitely looking for a great quality 6 inch to make things easier.
5. Hand Immersion Blender with Whisk attachment- I don’t use much in the way of electric kitchen equipment, this is an exception. Stores easily in the long, narrow drawers in Ceol Mor’s galley. Since I am almost always making either a salad dressing, sauce, etc daily this gets used frequently.
6. Silicone Trivets- I am on the hunt for more. Not only are they great hot pads that can easily be washed with your dirty dishes, they do an outstanding job of keeping things from sliding around the galley when cooking underway.
7. MYTH BUST Footed French Wine Tumblers- We are a bit fussy about dining on Ceol Mor. Sure, we have a set of melamine dishes for when we are on passage and for quick lunches but we do like to have a nice tea. Cloth napkins, proper cutlery, glass or china dishes and absolutely never wine in a plastic glass at dinner. Ever. See? A bit fussy. These wine tumblers have survived being on Ceol Mor since 2016. I’ve owned them a lot longer and I adore them. They hold a small serving, have a short stem and are weighty enough to be balanced and small enough to fit on a small cockpit table. I store them when we are on passage in the cabinet lined with padded shelf lining. The trick to stowing is ensuring there is a bit of shock absorption and no movement. I snug over a beer cozie on each one and make certain there is no room for them to slide about. While I have a plastic no spill cup for underway, we just really prefer avoiding eating and drinking off of plastic or metal. Ceol Mor has wine glasses and pint glasses and water goblets all of glass on board. Living on a boat doesn’t mean plastic everything all the time.
8. MYTH BUST Small cast iron skillet- Have you heard the myth that cast iron is terrible on a boat? Consider that myth busted. I use my little cast iron skillet all the time and literally can’t imagine not having one on board. I clean it properly with Kosher salt, heat and friction and keep it well seasoned.
9. Corelle dishes- see #2 and #7. Mark built removable storage caddies in our salon table for our Corelle dishes, napkins and cutlery. The last time I broke a Corelle plate on board was in the Bahamas in 2016. We were at anchor. I just managed to knock it at just the perfect angle on the faucet. Thanks to a hand held brush and pan and a shop vac, clean up wasn’t a big deal. We’ve done so well with the Corelle over the years, and Mark’s caddy system works so well underway, I am on the hunt for some beautiful vintage fine china plates to have aboard.
10. Mandoline- Ceol Mor really does have a tiny kitchen. I just can’t afford the space for a food processor. Fortunately with a mandoline with a decent blade you don’t need one. Most inexpensive mandolines are relatively flat, long and narrow and thus easy to fit in the long narrow galley drawers. I sadly broke the handle on our old 20 year old German mandoline and repaced it with what was available- a Prep Solutions model from Target. The blade is fine and it offers 3 settings for slicing and a blade lock for storage. The finger guard however, is atrocious. It has mere nubs on a plastic pusher that doesn’t control whatever is being sliced well, which tempts you to eschew using the finger guard. There is not a single professional chef I have worked with who doesn’t have a severly cut finger from a mandoline story, myself included. The grip of the finger guard really matters.
11. Silicone storage bags- My favorite are the Stasher brand. You can get them online or at The Container Store. If you are lucky enough to have a TJ/TK Maxx or Marshall’s Home Goods near you, you can sometimes find them for half price in the kitchen section. Washable, reusable, can be placed in boiling water to reheat and with a seal that will hold liquids in even upside down these are super handy.
12. Good Quality Box Grater- it takes up a bit of space, but having a great quality box grater coupled with the mandoline pretty much covers the utlity of a food processor in a very small space. Unless I were cooking for more than 4 crew, I would not need anything else.
13. Good quality non-stick pan- I have a little Calphalon skillet that is handy. One. That is all the non-stick cookware anyone needs.It serves to toast bread, saute veggies and cook eggs, etc. Proteins, are handled by my lil cast iron skillet. I have a larger skillet that came with the nesting cookware set but I think in the past year I’ve used it twice. Read on…
14. Engel drop in fridge- We replaced our old cold plate system years ago with a drop in Engel. We lost a little in storage space and ability to have both a freezer and fridge (ours is either or) at the same time. What we gained is tremendous power efficiency, solid temperature regulation and reliability. Its been going strong for ten years now! I am desperately trying to find space for a portable Engel to use as a freezer.
15.Seaward Hille Range cooker/stove. I have a love/hate relationship with my stove. We have the 3 burner and it has been rock solid. While it does heat up the cabin, it also cooks pizzas ALL the way around without having to turn it every few minutes. Bread comes out evenly baked. Roasts look beautiful. Plenty of BTUS on the burners too. It is also 40 years old and looks it. No matter how hard you scrub and polish it, it looks slightly disreputable. Its one of the few places on Ceol Mor that has not been redone. I am often tempted by the shiny new cookers available and then, I hear the stories of those sailors who opted to part with a whole bunch of cash for shiny and new and they perform terribly. What we have works, even if it does look more than a bit tired.
And now for Things That Make Me Go ‘MEH’.
1. Nesting Cookware- Mark made me say goodbye to all my beautiful professional quality pots and pans when we sold our home so I have some pretty big feelings about this. Mark procured the Moss and Stone stacking cook set with removable handles. I have forgiven him.
Or at least mostly forgiven…
The first issue is that these are aluminum, not stainless steel or copper. I might feel a little less like whipping up a batch of hate steak had he opted for a set of Magma stainless but it was a pandemic and you got what you could. The lack of weight on the smallest sauce pan ( the size I use most) means that if you attach the removeable handle to an empty pot, the weight of it causes the pot to tumble over. Every. Dang. Time. No, you can’t always just leave the handle off. Super annoying.Death by a thousand paper cuts.
The pots Mark ordered are nonstick. I kinda feel that one non-stick skillet is very handy, but that’s all anyone needs in the way of non-stick surfaces. Just having to use silicone tools to protect the surface is annoying enough, then you realize the attachable handles teeth are destroying the finish at the rim. Then there is the handle that never wants to release. We also can’t forget that none of these nesting sets have the size pots I actually need. We have enough room in our cabinet to accomodate handled pots so I plan on finding some I love and at least one sauce pan will be copper. Make it so.
2.Microwave- in the 14 years that we have owned Ceol Mor, I have lodged a consistent campaign to get rid of the damn microwave mounted in our galley and reclaim that space for an additional pantry to no avail. This is super weird as I think we have used the microwave a total of 6 times…ever. I think the real reason Mark is against it is that its another project and we have enough projects. Its currently being used as the world’s ugliest bread box and emergency Faraday cage.
As far as complaints go, that’s about it and they are small in the scheme of things. I’m keeping an eye out for upgrades on the knife and pot front. I am thinking the best place to find what I want is to wait until we sail to France. I can continue to get by with the equipment on board. I have my gel mat to keep me comfortable, oor wee battered tea kettle and the trusty pressure cooker. What more could you want?
hmmm.
A dishwasher sure would be nice.
